In a typical veneer-slicing machine, as for example known from EP 0,127,175, the table to which the flitch to be sliced is clamped moves up and down in a vertical plane. To this end the table is guided by means of guide rails and shoes. A slice of veneer is cut from the flitch, e.g. as it moves downward, by an upwardly directed blade. The blade is mounted together with a pressure plate on a tool support that is normally stationary during the cutting operation. For each cycle of the table movement the tool support is advanced toward the flitch through a distance equal to the thickness of the veneer slice. The cutting edge of the blade and also the face of the tool support turned toward the table are parallel to the plane of the table.
German 2,548,164 describes a veneer-slicing machine with a vertically or nearly vertically movable table that when used reciprocates vertically with a flitch clamped to it. A tool carriage with a blade and pressure plate as well as a conveyor belt for carrying off the veneer slices is movable at a right angle to the table. The cutting edge of the blade is directed downward. The cutting is done during upward movement of the table.
Veneer-slicing machines with different arrangements of the table and blade are also known but they have no widespread use.
With the known veneer-slicing machines the attack angle, that is the angle between the cutting edge of the blade and the plane of the table against which the flitch is clamped, is fixed at 0°; the table plane and the cutting edge thus are parallel. Thus it is only limitedly and at great difficulty possible to conform the attack angle for instance to tapered flitches or so as better to follow their shape. This leads to lower-quality veneers.